Video: Android 5.0 Feature – Chrome Tabs Become a Part of the App Switcher

When you first boot a device running Android 5.0 “Lollipop” and open Chrome Beta, a pop-up will introduce you to the idea that your Chrome Beta tabs will now be a part of the app switcher UI. That might sound cool on the surface, but unfortunately, the implementation isn’t great yet. Thankfully, you can easily turn this feature on or off until Google (hopefully) adds back some of the functionality that goes missing with this option turned on. Let’s talk about how this all works.

With Chrome Beta as a part of the app switcher, you get individual cards in the app switcher that represent each tab you have open at the moment. If you tap the app switcher button, you can then choose specific tabs to open, which is useful if you happen to be in another app before deciding that you now want to jump back into a specific Chrome tab. That’s about the only reason I can see this being useful, though. I’ll try to explain what I mean.

With Chrome Beta merged into the app switcher, Google (for whatever reason that I cannot figure out) has taken away the tab button with open tab count that sits at the top of the app, up next to the menu. They also killed off the swiping gesture at the top of the app that lets you jump between currently opened tabs. These are two of the most useful items in Chrome, if you ask me. But with Chrome a part of the app switcher, you now have to tap the app switcher button, then potentially scroll through all of your recently used apps, until you find the tab you want to go into. That seems like too many steps for something as simple as switching tabs.

As I mentioned in the opening, thankfully, you can turn this integration off pretty easily. To toggle this option on or off, head into Chrome>Settings>Merge tabs and apps, and then flip the switch.

Keep in mind that this is also only in Chrome Beta for now, but I would assume Google plans to add this functionality into Chrome stable before long. When that happens, I hope they add back tab functionality within the app. A combination of tabs in the app switcher and the same tab functionality we already love within the app would be awesome.

Watch the video below and then tell us what you think about this “feature.”

I don’t see it on my Nexus 7 2013 either. Not in Chrome or Chrome Beta.

jeesung

not a fan

加内特

Who can tell me, what my MotoX was up 5.0

David Hyman

I remember google saying that it would include all of your chrome tabs from all all your browsers (phone, tablet computer) anyone know if all of my tabs show up in the task menu? If so, I would for sure use it! It would allow me to pick up where I left off on any of my devices…

mwjii

Your right that stinks. Google should keep the tab number and swipe gesture and still put it in apps switcher.

Cruz R.

It does look cleaner in the app drawer. But it does take away functionality. Lets hope they figured out a mixed of both in the final release.

duke69111

Giants open with a bang…ohhh that hurts. Go Royals.

xFrozenMANGO

As much as I would love to see the Royals win, they don’t have the hitters compared to the Giants.

duke69111

Who knows, maybe last nights loss was what the doctor ordered. A punch in the gut and now the pressure of that first loss is gone.

Emmanuel

I’m not sure if I understood it correctly during the keynote but I believe this is just the start and is just an initial example of an API that is gonna be available in Android Lollipop. Developers can now send “activities” into the task switcher allowing you to jump from task to task within apps. (i.e jumping from the twitter compose screen to twitter timeline without closing the compose screen, via the task switcher).

schoat333

I get annoyed when more then one tab opens. I guess I’m old….

BrianBrick

This will work great for me as I always end up tapping the app switcher when I want to change tabs before remembering that I have to use the tabs button. Now it will actually do what I want it to.

WickedToby741

What would be really cool is of you could swipe left and right on the notification bar to switch between apps and tabs similar to how you can in Chrome on the URL bar.

Mirko Schwamm

Hmm… well I don´t like the tab button next to the address field at all.

First you have to scroll up to even see the nav bar and then have to touch the small tab button on the top of your phone.
If you have small hands or paws (like me ;-)) it´s a real inconvinient way to browse….

But this new approach ain´t the way to solve that. Scrolling through all the apps until you reach the opened tab from 4 hours ago is not a good pratice.

Actually, I really liked the PIE controls in the android browser! You could turn this on (in settings – lab) and navigate through the web with one finger.

MrBigStuff

You don’t have to hit the tab button. You can just swipe down from the address bar and it will open up the tabs view.

ted

google is (accurately, i think) predicting the shift away from native apps back to full-featured web apps that function like native apps. when this happens, it’ll make more sense to mix them together.

JSo

Google is becoming more and more like webOS. I remember webOS having the ability to have web pages as separate cards.

ddpacino

They guy who made webOs is enhancing Android, lol. WebOS-esque features is a given.

JSo

I know. I have always liked his designs. I was a big webOS fan and when I saw he went over to Google, I started seeing a lot of similarities when Ice Cream Sandwich was released and ever since then.

ddpacino

Yea, same here. Was a Huge webOS lover, and still have two Pres lol. Loving what Matias has done to this point. L on my N5 is pure GOLD right now.

JSo

Even the new Google Now launcher has a similar looking app drawer now. Separated by card like pages that simply just scroll to the side with no scrolling effect anymore. 🙂

JSo

I guess I am just not one of those “Power Users” that have a crap load of tabs open at once

Suicide_Note

Same here. For me, having 3 or 4 open is a lot.

JSo

I think I have an OCD problem and don’t like leaving tabs open. Or any apps in recents. lol.

ddpacino

It’s almost like some of us use it as a to-do list, “I’ll come back to that article later”, lol.

Justin Kos

I am way too excited to get 5.0 on my OnePlus One

BPasour

The other day my wife had 80 tabs open in Chrome….

Godzilla

I have her beat when i search porn

Jason Purp

Sounds more like you beat yourself

Godzilla

Cant resist looking at Mothra’s leaked nude selfies.

san q

Lmao

Dan

I always thought it would be nice if a long press on the app switcher button would show tabs in the active app. Do this.

ddpacino

What other app uses tabs like this?

Lawrence C

It would be nice if we can have multiple instances of the same app (e.g. two pdf files) if that was implemented

Guest345

Not a fan, but this definitely needs a kill all button if you’re running these tabs.

So glad that you can turn this off! When they showed that functionality at I/O I immediately disliked it. I want the app switcher to include just apps, not chrome tabs. I frequently have a ton of tabs active in Chrome, so it’d really suck to have to shuffle though them when I’m just trying to switch to another app.

notab

Yeah, I noticed this in chrome beta the other night, had to go back to a previous version to get the tab square back. It is a terrible decision for them to do this.

JSo

Or you could have just turned it off in the settings

Pierito

I am not in favor of this…I think it’s better if the tabs remain within the app